1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to a method and apparatus for indicating an operational status of a cooking appliance and, more particularly, to a cooking appliance and corresponding method utilizing an indicator formed from an electrochromic material provided to a surface of the appliance to indicate an operational state.
2. Description of Related Art
Oven ranges typically include an oven cavity and an oven door that restricts access into the oven cavity. To ensure sufficient access to the interior of the oven cavity and allow large food items such as turkeys, cakes, etc. to be placed therein, the oven door is typically a large, planar structure that extends over most of the appliance's height. Efforts to maximize the volume of the oven cavity for cooking have only further increased the size of the oven door. Although many oven doors include a transparent window that allows food being cooked to be observed without opening the oven door, most of the remaining externally-exposed surface of the oven door serves no function other than to provide the closed oven cavity with a pleasing aesthetic appearance.
Due to the space required for the oven cavity/oven door, cooktops, and other functional features that are operable to emit heat and cook food, there is a limited amount of space remaining for other features. User interfaces for displaying relevant information, for example, and other such features that do not directly heat food must be small enough to fit on the remaining cabinet space not utilized by the cooking features. As a result, the amount of information that can be displayed and the size of the displayed information has traditionally been small.